


a tender thing

by skatzaa



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Kenobi - John Jackson Miller
Genre: Fluff, Multi, Obi-Wan Needs a Hug, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Star Wars: A New Hope, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 00:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16713091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: Ben learns very quickly to never ignore a summons from the Whitesun-Lars household.





	a tender thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TexasDreamer01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TexasDreamer01/gifts).



> TexasDreamer01, I hope you enjoy this! I pulled a bit from the _Kenobi_ novel because I love it so much, but it's not necessary to have read it for this to make sense.

Ben learns very quickly to never ignore a summons from the Whitesun-Lars household.

He still doesn’t know what led to Owen’s change of heart, just that, sometime after the Calwells leave Tatooine, Beru finds him in Anchorhead and shoves a comlink into his hand. She glares and says, “Don’t you dare ignore me, Ben Kenobi,” before disappearing back into the crowd.

Ben stares at the comlink for a long moment, absolutely bewildered, before wisely tucking it into an inner pocket of his robe.

Beru uses it to summon him to the homestead every second or third week, at first just to feed him, worrying loudly the entire time that he isn’t eating enough. But then it’s to help Owen with the stubborn vaperator in the western quadrant, or to fix the landspeeder that died the week before, and then before he knows it he has to move to a different hut on the south side of the Jundland Wastes, because he’s too far away to be making the trip regularly. Rooh, his eopie, seems grateful for the location change at least. If he misses a trip, or ignores the message, his next visit is usually less than pleasant, with Beru refusing to speak with him and Owen's less-than-helpful commiserating grimace and Luke's tears, because Ben was missed.

His routine is simple. He meditates on the sand dunes each morning, before the suns break the horizon, and by the time he returns to his hut there is often a message waiting for him on his comlink from Beru, asking him to come help with one task or another. Ben changes into something not reeking of dried sweat, saddles Rooh, pats the baby eopie that he still hasn’t named on the head, and heads east to the Whitesun-Lars homestead.

This morning, it’s a request to babysit Luke while she and Owen head into Anchorhead. Ben arrives at the house to the sight of Beru standing in the doorway, Luke propped on her hip.

Ben ties off Rooh under the canopy Owen constructed a month ago and trudges through the ever-shifting sand to the house.

“Hello Ben,” Beru says. She hands Luke off instead of trying to kiss Ben’s cheek. He is very glad she has only attempted that once.

Luke burbles happily in his arms, patting at Ben’s face in greeting.

“Hello, little one,” Ben says, offering a finger for Luke to hold onto. He looks back up at Beru, still smiling. “Hello Beru. Where’s Owen?”

“Asleep,” she says, cheeky, and turns smartly on her heel to descend into the house.

Ben stares after her until Luke squawks indignantly. Ben glances down at him and says, “I do believe I’ve been tricked. Yet again.”

Luke stares up at Ben, somber. Ben sighs and takes the stairs down.

Owen is nowhere to be found, so Ben follows the sounds of activity into the kitchen and finds Beru fixing a pot of _tzai_. Ben still doesn’t understand the cultural significance of the drink, but he knows not to ask how it’s made and to appreciate any time it is shared with him.

Beru sets a mug down on the counter in front of him and Ben dips his head, grateful. He waits until after they’ve both had a drink to say, “So I take it you don’t plan on going to Anchorhead today.”

Beru presses her lips together before hiding behind her mug.

“I thought a day here would be nice,” she says. Ben opens his mouth but she cuts him off to add, “With  _all_ of us.”

Ben closes his mouth. He hadn’t quite realized there _was_ any sort of _us_ to speak of.

“Oh,” he manages, and then winces. He takes another sip to stave off any awkwardness. In his arms, Luke babbles quietly to himself, patting Ben on the chest and shoulder.

The minutes pass quietly between them as they drink the _tzai_. Luke’s head drifts, slowly, down to Ben’s shoulder. When Ben raises an eyebrow at Beru, she sighs.

“We hardly slept all night,” she says by way of explanation. “But he always calms down with you.”

Ben pulls back into himself in the Force, guilty. He hardly ever realizes he’s doing it in the moment, reaching out to sooth Luke in the Force when he’s upset or scared. Now that Ben lives on this side of the Wastes, sometimes he can even feel Luke’s moods from his home, if they’re particularly strong.

Beru touches Ben on the back of the hand, her fingers gentle. She says, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s a good thing, Ben.”

He drinks more _tzai_ before releasing his Force signature, wrapping himself around Luke’s dozing presence.

“I worry for him,” he admits softly. Beru _hmm_ s but doesn’t interrupt. “When I was his age, we stayed in the crèche in clans, so we were always surrounded by others like us. I fear he doesn’t receive enough Force-use stimulation.”

It’s one of the first times he’s willingly talked about his time with the Order with her, but the memories of Hawkbat Clan are full of happiness and sunshine and warmth. His initiate days were a bright spot before the AgriCorps, and Qui-Gon, and the war.

Beru gives him a moment. “You weren’t with your parents?”

He shakes his head. Puts down the mug and rubs his hands up and down Luke’s small back.

“They gave me to the Order before I was a year old,” he says. Beru makes a tiny noise, like an aborted gasp. “I don’t know the circumstances and I never asked. I was happy with the Jedi.”

“You were still a child without your parents,” she replies. “Luke may be missing the structure of the Jedi, but you lost something to.”

Ben stares at the counter top. He never felt like he was missing anything. The Jedi may have spurned attachment, but that didn’t mean he went without love. The temple was full of love of all kinds.

But so is the Whitesun-Lars homestead.

Beru rounds the counter and presses her hand to the space between Ben’s shoulder blades.

“Owen and I have spoken,” she says, “at length. We’re okay if you want to teach Luke how to use the Force, to defend himself. But there are other things he needs to be taught.”

Ben nods. She isn’t wrong; obviously there were many things flawed about the Order, and there are things Owen and Beru can teach him that Ben could never know.

“I understand that—”

“ _But_ ,” Beru cuts him off again. “We also want to make sure that _you_ are okay as well.”

Ben tenses. He’s achingly conscious of her hand on his back, the warmth of her body so close to his.

He has, perhaps, missed being in contact with others over the course of the last two years. The last decade or more, truly, between the war and Anakin’s quirks as a padawan and the icy distance between him and Qui-Gon at the very end. He misses Bant, and the way she would hug the air out of him. Quinlan and his incessant need to be touching everyone. Garen and the casual way he would sling his arm over Ben’s shoulder. Aayla, Shaak, Kit, Plo, Anakin, Cody, Ahsoka, the list is endless…

He shifts Luke so he can cradle the boy in both arms and ducks his face to press a kiss to Luke’s downy soft hair.

“What are you asking, Beru?” And he hears the exhaustion in his own voice, heavy enough to weigh on him.

“Move in,” she says. “We have a spare room we can clear out. Rooh and her calf can live here too. Their help with farm labor would make up for any costs of caring for them.”

Ben imagines it. Waking every morning to meditate on the dunes near one of the vaporators. Helping Beru with breakfast, going out with Owen to check on the machines in the field. Teaching Luke in the evenings, waking up with him when he cries at night so that Owen and Beru can sleep.

The images are startlingly easy to conjure, and Ben is even more startled to realize they’re something he wants. Desperately.

“Alright,” he says, and Beru’s surprise is overpowering and instantaneous. She didn't think he would agree that easily, or at all. He wouldn't have expected it either, right up until the second he said it.

Owen chooses this moment to come into the kitchen, his strides long despite the droop of his shoulders and the way he yawns as he goes for the _tzai_.

“Hello Ben,” he says easily, almost fondly, if Ben was reading him correctly. Such a difference from the man who glared at Ben from a distance as he gave them Luke. “What sort of trouble are you two up to?”

“Ben has agreed to move in,” Beru informs him.

Owen doesn’t even pause in pouring himself a cup of _tzai_. “Finally.”

Ben tamps his indignation down. Apparently, he’s the only one not on the same page here.

Owen comes back around the counter and wraps Ben in a hug, careful not to crush Luke between them or spill his drink. His hand on the back of Ben’s neck is a tender thing. He pulls away and gives Beru a kiss in greeting, his hand still on Ben’s neck.

Oh. Well. It seems Ben has slightly misread the situation once again.

He wonders if the spare room is meant to go to Luke, when he gets old enough, and if Owen and Beru will have found room in their bed for Ben by then. If Ben will have learned to be comfortable with that possibility.

“I suppose I should… gather my things,” he ventures.

“Later,” Owen says. He sips at his _tzai_ , radiating satisfaction.

“Right now,” Beru continues, seamlessly picking up the thread of her husband’s thought, “we have a lovely day planned here.”

Luke sighs in his sleep, and Ben can’t argue with any of them, let alone all of them.

“Alright,” he says. “What’s first?”

Their smiles could rival the suns.

**Author's Note:**

> They haven't figured everything out, but they're getting there and I'm proud of them for that :')
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated but never required <3


End file.
